Short Summary

In Chile, the relatives of fifteen people found dead in an abandoned lime kiln last November are staging a hunger strike in the Danish Embassy in Santiago to demand the return of the bodies for burial.

Description

In Chile, the relatives of fifteen people found dead in an abandoned lime kiln last November are staging a hunger strike in the Danish Embassy in Santiago to demand the return of the bodies for burial. In june an investigating jude ruled that the fifteen people found dead were killed by Chilean police one month after the coup which overthrew the government of Salvador Allende.
SYNOPSIS: Thirteen relatives of the people killed by Chilean police have taken refuge in the Danish Embassy. They are just one group of many who have staged demonstrations since the military junta took power in September 1973.
This group are staging a hunger strike in a Santiago church, one of four that are being occupied. They too want information about relatives that disappeared after the coup and have not been heard from since.
Each protestor wears a picture of a dead or missing relative. The bodies of the dead found in the disused jime kiln were only acknowledged after a priest heard about the killings during confession.
Some of the bodies were identified as those of left-wing farmers arrested following the coup. They were bound with wire and shot before being put in the kiln. Following official investigations eight policemen were arrested and convicted of the killings. But the men involved were released in April under an amnesty declared by the new Head of State General Pinochet.
The demonstrators are asking for justice and say it is a crime to have released the killers of their relatives. A United Nations working group and the Roman Catholic Church have accused Chile of violating human rights. But the Chilian government refutes these charges saying in 1978, there were no deaths related to political circumstances and no detentions without trial.